Respond.io is the whatsapp customer service platform that you need.
What do you like best?
We use respond.io mainly for whatsapp customer service in our company. you can use also with other chat platforms but to be honest in america you usually need it for whatapp. Anyway what I like from this platform and is really hard to find is that they already have implemented the broadcast feature from whatsapp business, also you integrate your whatsapp twilio api (because it works with twilio) and vuala you will have a kind of intercom for whatsapp business. it will let you respond pretty easily when customer chat to your number and if you have a list of suscribed contact you can send a broadcast previously reviewed by whatsapp, also there is an automation feature for autoresponders (not sure if bots) if you use with several seats (customer agents) it will autoasign conversations so in my opinion is a really complete suite and easy to run.
What do you dislike?
There are still some features that are missing because they are still in development and my best guess is that the respond.io team it might be really small but still the features that are built right now are most useful. Actually as and example we were looking a software to use whatsapp business through twilio but we didn't want to build the chat and the broadcast feature we expected there were platforms to do it so respond.io was the most complete but not with the feature. We asked for the features throug mail and respond.io forums and depending on the people asking for the features is the priority and guess what? in a matter of 3 months they developed the feature. So even if they miss features they listen.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Don't hesitate resnpond.io is the whatsapp business solution that you need through twilio, it ill save you a lot of time and money it also has built the integration with telegram so there is no excuse our customer now days are looking to reach you at this chat platforms so better to be there with the right tools.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
Having a whatsapp business number is headache if you are a limited startup in terms of coders. Usually the first step is to buy a whatsapp business number with twilio or another company who sells them; second problem you will use through apis there nothing built so or you find a platform that has all your requirements.... or you build your own platform (remember limited starup in terms of coders); third problem there ara ver few platforms out there that are really functional and if there are they will try to charge by user and no per monthly fee plus twilio fees. So in order to solve all this 3 problems is why we choose respond.io our team was already custom to work with intercom and respond.io is just as comfortable for our customer service area and they are building time to time new features plus you pay just a monthly fee for respond.io no per customers or sent messages which makes it affordable.